THE ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKHOUSES: constructing workhouses. By the end of 1844, 113 were opened, a year later there were 122 and the remaining 8 n1837 the Irish Poor Law Bill was introduced and were opened in 1846. By 1850 the number of workhouses passed by Parliament. It was based, not on the had increased to 163. Each Union had a workhouse, Irecommendations of the Royal Commission of which was administered by a Board of Guardians, Inquiry into. the condition of the poor in Ireland 1833-' 36, composed of members, elected by ratepayers and of but on those of an English Poor Law Commissioner, Justices of the Peace, resident in the Union. The George Nicholls .. Commissioners issued regulations with regard to the He submitted his report after a nine week visit to keeping of accounts, the election of Guardians, the duties Ireland. The Government which passed the Poor Laws of Poor Law Officers and the management of the believed that the sufferings of the poor were of their own workhouse. The Commissioners were authorised also to creation and the remedy within their own control. The audit Union accounts and could control the appointment workhouse was intended as a test of destitution. The relief and removal of Poor Law Guardians and Officers. The provided there was to be less desirable than that paid Officers of the workhouse were - Master, Matron, obtainable by independent means. Such was the misery of Medical Officer, Porter and - should the Poor Law the Irish poor at the time that this was impossible, and so Commissioners direct - a school Master and school it was determined that the irksomeness of the system Mistress. There were three Chaplains, one Catholic, one should come from workhouse discipline and the Protestant and one Dissenter. separation of the sexes. This separation necessitated the The Master of the workhouse was charged with breaking up of familiies. Tobacco and alcohol were not the general management and superintendence of the allowed and the diet was scant and monotonous. workhouse. His duties, as well as those of the other The workhouses were open to all who were officers, were listed in an order from the Poor Law destitute. The labourer, unable to obtain work or only at Commissioners. It was the Matron's duty to superintend an insufficient wage, was as much entitled to relief as the female paupers and to assist the Master. The those who were helpless from old age, sickness or Guardians were directed to appoint a Visiting Committee infirmity. The principle of the workhouse system was from among themselves, whose duty it would be to well summarised in the words of George Cornwall Lewis, examine the workhouse every week at least. There was a and Englishman, who was closely associated with the list of seventeen questions which the Committee was introduction of the workhouse system into Ireland, "Offer required to answer. Their reports were kept in the everbody relief, but make it so disagreeable that none but Visitors' Book. The Visiting Committees, as time was to those in real want will accept it". The principle on which show, did not operate effectively. the workhouses were operated allowed for no distinction The rough institutional character of the between the treatment of the person reduced to poverty workhouse is well illustrated by the quality of furniture through sickness and the person so reduced through and utensils listed in the directives of the Commissioners. laziness, if there were such. The same rigid discipline Kitchen utensils were designed to boil potatoes and make applied to sick and well alike, which left workhouses stirabout. Dishes, plates and cutlery were listed for the use unsuitable places for the reception of the sick. Each of workhouse officials only. It was proposed that all beds workhouse contained an infirmary, which was intended for the inmates should be double, except those in the for those inmates, who were taken ill whilein the house, infirmary. These so called "double" beds were only 3ft. and not as a general hospital for the district. This lOins. wide and the single beds 2ft. 4ins. Each inmate was infirmary was placed at the back of the workhouse allowed a'minimum amount of workhouse clothes. Strict building in a building distinct from the wards of the and minute as the regulations of the Poor Laws and the house. At each end of the infirmary there were wards or subsequent orders of the Commissioners were, the Irish cells for idiots, epileptics and lunatics. workhouses, from the very beginning, began to develop Under the provision of the Poor Law Act, the along lines other than those intended by the originators. administration of relief in Ireland was placed under the There were also District Asylums for the lunatic poor. English Poor Law Commission, established in 1834. These were established by the Lord Lieutenant in Council Since Ireland had never had a Poor Law before, the and were built and maintained by the area served, the Commissioners had a clean sheet to work money required being voted by the Grand Juries. on. Eight assistant Commissioners, four experienced The hospitals provided for the sick poor were Englishmen and four newly-appointed Irishmen were inadequate to meet the needs of the country. The Royal assigned to work in Ireland. The country was divided for Commission of Inquiry into the condition of the poor in Poor Law purposes into 130 divisions, called "Unions", Ireland 1833-1836 recommended that legal provision and arrangements were made for levying rates and should be made and rates levied for, among other things, 85 the relief of the sick poor in hospitals, infirmaries and Right Rev. Dean Michael McDermott 1851-1866 convalescent establishments. Where the person in need ~f Very Rev. Patrick Canon Kelly 1866-1898, , relief could not be removed from home, the Commission Very Rev. Hugh Canon Gately 1898-1907, recommended that he should be supplied with food, Right Rev. Dean Roderick Gearthy 1907-1926. medicine and medical attendance. However, the One of the local boys, who served Mass in the recommendations of the Commission were not acceptable workhouse for Dean Gearthy was Mr. Gus Connolly, to a Government which supported the theory of "laissez- Strokestown. He has vivid memories of being Caire". Instead of being provided with hospitals, Ireland collected 'before his breakfast on Sunday mornings got workhouses, which were merely poorhouses - worse by the Dean's driver, and travelling to the Workhouse than prisons and certainly no substitute for hospitals. by pony and trap, seated beside the Dean in his tall hat. THE SITE: There was a fever hospital as well as a general hospital in the workhouse. The fever hospital was isolated from the other buildings by an eight foot high wall. The mortuary was also isolated by this wall. The second hospital was for general patients. The nurses and the teacher had rooms in this hospital. Boys and girls were separated as were the man and women. The workhouse also had a small chapel, a dining hall, kitchen, schoolroom, boardroom and office, porters room, master's room, storeroom and a master's storeroom. There was an eight foot high wall around the workhouse as if it were a prison. UNION WORKHOUSE IN CLOONSLANOR: Mr. Gus Connolly holding one of the Stations of the Cross from Cloonslanor Workhouse. It was built in 1851 and cost £5,600 - a large sum in those days. It contained three lines of buildings, each 150 yards long with a space of 40 yards between. The workhouse The last clerk employed in the workhouse was a slated three-storey building. There was a chapel, was Thomas Murray of Riversdale (Roscommon mortuary, small primary school, dining hall, cookery road) who died in 1934. The last Master was the late apartment and separate buildings for men, women and Vincent Owens, Springlawn, Carniska, who died in children. There was also a fever hospital in the 1977. There were two resident nurses in the workhouse. A large gate opened on to the workhouse and Workhouse, the last known being Miss Bergin and inside the gate was a lodge, where the gatekeeper lived Miss O'Beirne. The last nurse in charge was with his family. The last occupant was a Mr. McGrive. Margaret Beirne. Every St. Stephen's Day, which The primary school consisted of a small room; the full- was an Open Day, the people of Strokestown visited time teacher taught children up to eight years, when they the workhouse inmates. All groceries were supplied left to attend Strokestown school. by the traders of the town whose business with the -; The .site belonged to the Mahons, who were workhouse was their main trade. Goods were lqcal J~ndlords. When the Unions were set up, the B. collected by donkey and cart by Peter Maxwell. The of G. bought the site and built the workhouse. It took last bakery to supply bread to the workhouse was over three years to build, and was completed in 1851. Featherstones in Elphin Street. Meat was supplied by There was a one-acre site, containing gardens, which Philip O'Neill of Bawn Street and groceries came the poor men or paupers cultivated. The workhouse from John Sharkey's in Church Street. The was situated half a mile from Strokestown on what workhouse provided shelter and food for homeless people and abandoned children. Able-bodied adults was then called "Workhouse Road". The chapel in were required to work in the kitchen, the laundry and the workhouse was Roman Catholic, and the local the gardens. The workhouse was closed in 1920 and priests said Mass there on Sundays and holy days.